March 29, 2013

NATCON AAR 1/8- Fallschirmjager vs. Panzer Company

Day 1 at NATCON is over and its a been a long day but an enjoyable one. 3 games down with 1 win, 1 loss and a 3rd game that I could call a draw but have just realised I stuffed up from the start and should have lost regardless. You should spot the mistake in the first AAR for that one. Just 5 more games to go over the next two days. Interesting mix of armies on display although the variety isnt that great as I have seen most of them before. The WHFB field was far more diverse with a number of players I hadnt come across before as well as many regulars fielding different armies than their norm. Also a huge Warmachine complement (not enough Menoth players though - never enough heretic burning religious fanatics around when you need them), as well as the usual complement of alternate rule sets, retailer displays and bring and buy tables (which have already cost me $30 for a couple of Flak 88's for my DAK Panzer army). Anyway onto the actionGAME 1Encounter Defending vs. Panzer Company
Not quite sure how to write this one up now. In reviewing the photos I realised that I deployed illegally at the start putting 2 Panzer Platoons and a FJ Platoon on the table initially when Infantry Companies are only allowed to deploy a single Armoured Platoon in the first instance.

The extra Platoon I deployed the StuGs played a fairly important role in the first few turns and dictated how my opponent moved to a degree and I am sure he would have played differently had I had a different platoon on the table.

Going to see the TO tomorrow and get it sorted maybe get the result changed so I dont get any points for the game, will see what he says. It was a loss for me at 3-4 but still thats 3 points that I may not have gotten quite so easily had I deployed properly....

.... anyway if we review the game as it did go this is what happened.Opening Turns
Tigers dominated middle of battlefield forcing enemy PzIV to shift to West and attempt end run around the hill dominating the middle of the battlefield. Tigers opened up on enemy assault guns while StuGs moved up road with intent of attacking NE objective. Tigers had gotten very lucky with their Tiger Ace Skills rolling a 6 for the Platoon, then a 5 for the Platoon Commander and 4 for the Platoon giving the Platoon re-roll misses and the Commander ROF 3

Middle Turns
Enemy armour continues its flanking manoeuvre while a platoon of heavy self-propelled anti-tank guns comes on in reserve to the NW. The Tigers unwisely switch fire to the flanking PzIV’s allowing the enemies assault guns to focus their fire on the StuGs. A Tiger is then knocked out by the enemy SP Anti-tank vehicles and the StuGs unable to advance against this new threat withdraw to defend the SE objective. All of our remaining reserves arrive the FJ Platoon occupying positions around the SE objective while the Nebelwerfers and AA Guns dig in to the right of the Southern objective.

The Tigers switch their fire back to the enemy assault guns to cover
the withdrawl of the StuGs destroying the remaining enemy vehicles and
killing their 2IC.
The flanking enemy armour continues its advance using the village
buildings as cover. Rocket fire destroys one tank while the remaining
Tiger kills another. As the FJ dig in around the two objectives the
enemies long range AT guns score a major victory when they knock out the
remaining Tiger tank. A second enemy PzIV platoon then arrives from
reserve. This advances toward the retreating StuGs and knocks out both
of the remaining vehicles.

End Turns
With all of our armour destroyed the two
enemy PzIV platoons advanced toward the objectives. They continue to
whittle each of the FJ Platoons down with HMG fire. Long range AT fire
also destroys the rockets and the company is now at less than half
strength. The FJ Platoon led by the CIC is nearing half strength and the
CIC opts to assault the enemy armour which has come to close to their
prepared positions.
The assault goes in but a large number of FJ are killed by defensive
fire before the CIC and FJ Platoon commanders Panzerfausts can destroy
two of the enemy tanks. The 3rd enemy tank attempts to join the assault
but bogs down crossing some hedgerow and is destroyed by the
Fallschirmager.

Things get crowded as all my scattered reserves come on in the same place

Deployment area doesn't stay crowded for long after the Nebs are taken out

/

While the enemy armour is gone the FJ have suffered heavy losses in destroying them and their morale breaks. Below half strength and with their CIC fleeing the rest of the FJ follow suit and the battle is over.
It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realised I could have used my 2IC to make the company morale check that I thought I had auto-failed because of the loss of my CIC and more than half of my platoons.

Anyway regardless of this error and my major one at the start the final score was 3-4

2 comments:

The "Armoured Reserves" rule only applies "in a mission with both the Reserves and Prepared Positions special rules where it is defending" (P. 269). So, in Encounter, I think you were fine here if I have read it correctly?